A Chinese family member of a passenger onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 screams as she is being brought into a room outside the media conference area at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur International Airport
A Chinese family member of a passenger onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 screams as she is being brought into a room outside the media conference area at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur International Airport Reuters

Chinese relatives of people missing on the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have been manhandled and thrown out of the daily press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

A scuffle erupted as two relatives of passengers approached journalists to ask for information on the search and staged a protest against Malaysian authorities.

"We protest against Malaysia for hiding the truth," said a family member.

"We can't stand it anymore" one of the relatives shouted, according to Sky News.

Sky reported that the Chinese pair attempted to unfurl a banner and then were attacked by police.

They were knocked to the ground and forcibly removed from a hotel room where the press conference was due to take place.

Timeline

The family members, visibly distressed, were then dragged away and locked inside a room. Police prevented media from speaking to them.

Frustration is growing among relatives of the 239 people on board the MH370 at the lack of progress in the search.

A total of 153 of the 239 people on board MH370 were Chinese. Families of the missing passengers on Malaysian flight MH370 have threatened to go on hunger strike to protest for more information from the Malaysian authorities.

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"Now we have no news, and everyone is understandably worried," said Wen Wanchen, whose son is one of the people missing on board MH370.

"The relatives say they will go to the [Malaysian] embassy to find the ambassador. The Malaysian ambassador should be presenting himself here. But he's not. Relatives are very unsatisfied. So you hear them saying 'hunger strike'," he told AFP.

FLIGHT MH370 FACTBOX

Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing at 00:41 on Saturday 8 March (16:41 GMT Friday).

About 50 minutes later, the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control.

No distress call was made.

On board, there were 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 14 countries. That included 153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.

Two Iranian male passengers, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mahread and Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza, were travelling on fake passports. Neither had any apparent links to terrorist groups.

No debris from the plane has been found in the international search.

Last confirmed communication with Indian Ocean satellite occurred at 08:11am, meaning plane continued to fly for seven hours after radar signal was lost.

At least 25 countries, including China, the US and Singapore, have now joined in the search for the missing plane.